Chapter 10 - Natalie Remembers)
Natalie Price woke in a hospital surrounded by federal agents.
Her first question was not about Richard.
It was about Daniel.
"Did he survive?"
The room became silent.
Nobody had told her how much time had passed.
Six years of captivity had distorted everything.
Grace was allowed to meet her two days later.
Natalie looked older than her photographs.
Thin.
Pale.
But alert.
When Grace entered, Natalie stared at her for a long moment.
"You're Daniel's wife."
Grace nodded.
"I was."
Natalie's eyes filled.
"I'm sorry."
Grace sat beside her.
"You tried to help him."
"He tried to help me."
Natalie looked toward the window.
"I should have listened sooner."
Grace recognized the guilt.
"You survived."
"Many didn't."
"That isn't because of you."
Natalie looked at her.
"Rebecca said the same thing."
For the next three hours Natalie described the network from inside.
Richard had kidnapped her after she canceled their wedding.
At first he kept her because he believed she possessed the network list.
When she refused to tell him where it was, Mark decided she might still be useful.
Natalie was a doctor.
They forced her to provide medical advice.
To interpret toxicology reports.
To help them understand how deaths might appear accidental.
Grace struggled to remain seated.
"They made you help?"
Natalie nodded.
"I tried to give wrong information when I could."
"Is that why some women survived?"
"Maybe."
She began crying.
"I don't know."
Grace took her hand.
Natalie continued.
Over the years she had been moved between properties.
Farmhouse.
Cabin.
Warehouse.
Cannery.
She learned names.
Voices.
Habits.
She learned Richard was not the mastermind.
Mark was.
Richard was the face.
The charm.
The man who entered women's lives.
But Mark designed the targets, arranged the finances and decided when a victim became dangerous.
"What happened to Daniel?" Grace asked.
Natalie closed her eyes.
"I heard them talk about him."
"When?"
"After they took me."
Grace leaned forward.
"Tell me."
"Mark said Daniel had copied the ledger."
"Did Mark cause the crash?"
Natalie nodded.
Grace's breath stopped.
"How?"
"Michael Dean followed Daniel from work."
Natalie's voice shook.
"Mark drove the truck."
Grace's fingers tightened around hers.
"You're sure?"
"I heard them argue. Dean said Mark almost hit Daniel's car. Mark said that would have been easier."
Grace began crying silently.
For four years she had imagined rain.
A mistake.
Bad luck.
Now she saw Mark behind Daniel on the dark road.
Forcing him toward concrete.
Then standing at the funeral three days later.
Mark had hugged her.
Grace suddenly remembered his words.
At least he didn't suffer.
She stood and walked to the window because she could not breathe.
Natalie waited.
Grace eventually returned.
"There is more," Natalie said.
Grace looked at her.
"Daniel's death wasn't supposed to be the end."
"What do you mean?"
"Mark wanted access to Daniel's client files."
"He got them."
"Not all of them."
Natalie explained that Daniel had discovered another account system.
The network's emergency reserve.
Millions hidden across cryptocurrency wallets, bearer bonds and overseas accounts.
Mark believed Daniel copied access codes.
After Daniel died, Mark searched everything.
Office.
Car.
Storage.
House.
He never found them.
"So he stayed close to me."
"Yes."
Grace understood.
Mark had not remained in her life because he cared.
He stayed because he was searching.
Then Richard entered Grace's life.
"Why marry me?"
Natalie's eyes met hers.
"Because Mark believed Daniel might have hidden the access keys in something belonging to you."
Daniel's watch.
Grace's house.
Peter's belongings.
Family keepsakes.
Richard's relationship gave them unlimited access.
Years of access.
But they still had not found what they wanted.
Grace frowned.
"Then why kill me?"
"Because after three years, Mark decided you didn't know."
Natalie looked down.
"And because your insurance policy made you profitable."
Grace felt cold.
Even failure became money.
"Peter found the memory card."
Natalie nodded.
"But that's not what Mark was searching for."
"What was?"
Natalie looked directly at her.
"The reserve account key."
Grace stared.
"Where is it?"
"I don't know."
"Daniel never told you?"
"He told me only one thing."
"What?"
Natalie hesitated.
"He said if anything happened to him, the key would stay with the person he trusted to grow into a better man than any of us."
Grace stopped breathing.
Peter.
Daniel had hidden something with Peter.
A six-year-old child.
But where?
They searched Daniel's watch again.
Nothing.
His toys.
Old books.
Clothes.
Photographs.
Then Peter remembered something.
"My dinosaur box."
Grace looked at him.
The dinosaur box had been Daniel's final birthday gift to Peter.
A wooden chest carved with small dinosaurs.
Peter used it for old toys.
It had sat in his closet for years.
Richard had moved into their home two years earlier.
He had seen it countless times.
But children kept worthless things.
Adults often ignored them.
Agents opened the box.
False bottom.
Inside was a small brass key and a handwritten number.
The key opened a private vault Daniel had rented under Peter's name as beneficiary.
Inside were bearer bonds.
Encrypted drives.
And records documenting nearly eighteen million dollars stolen from victims.
The money did not belong to Mark.
It belonged to the women.
Daniel had secured the evidence necessary to return much of it.
Peter stared at the vault.
"Is that why they wanted me?"
Grace knelt beside him.
"They wanted what Dad protected."
Peter looked at Daniel's handwriting on the envelope.
"Can we give it back?"
"To who?"
"The women."
Grace smiled through tears.
"Yes."
Peter nodded.
"Then that's what Dad wanted."
But one item inside the vault had nothing to do with money.
A sealed letter.
For Peter.
OPEN WHEN YOU ARE OLD ENOUGH TO UNDERSTAND WHY I DID THIS.
Grace stared at it.
Peter was only ten.
He looked at his mother.
"Am I old enough?"
Grace wanted to say no.
She wanted to preserve something untouched.
But Peter had stood in a wedding hall and faced a killer.
He had already learned more about the world than Daniel could have imagined.
Grace handed him the letter.
Peter opened it.
May you like
The first sentence made him cry.
If you are reading this, Peter, then I couldn't come home and explain it myself.
